Course Search Results

Masterpieces of Western art—how to look at, think about, and understand some of the worlds' most exciting works of architecture, painting, and sculpture; their construction, hidden meanings, historical content, and their meanings today. Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Arts, artists, and cultures of Africa; sculpture, paintings, pottery, textiles, architecture, human adornment.

This is an undergraduate introduction to the visual arts of Africa. No prior study of art history is necessary. This is a one-semester study of the sculpture, pottery, weaving, architecture, and other art forms of Africa from the Sahara to the Cape of Good Hope. The focus is on arts in cultural context. That means you will learn a great deal about the lives and history of many African peoples. You will see many, many slides of objects being made and used by African peoples to understand what the objects meant to the people who created them, and how the objects mirrored their social, educational, political, and economic systems.

Requirements for the online class include written participation in discussion sections, a midterm exam,  a final exam, several short quizzes and a short paper.  All readings will be available on ICON. Please note: There is a lot of writing in the discussion sections, and it will be very difficult for late enrollments to catch up after the first week of classes.

International and Global Issues Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Survey to foster development of critical skills in thinking and writing about visual culture, and to familiarize students with broad outlines of artistic development in the Western tradition, from prehistory through later Middle Ages; aesthetic qualities of artworks, relationship between style, function, and meaning.

This is the foundational course for the study of Art History, the discipline devoted to the skillful wrapping of words around images. The class surveys the history of western art, from pre-historic cave paintings through the age of Gothic cathedrals, touching along the way on the civilizations of ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the early medieval world. In richly illustrated lectures and weekly discussion sections, students will be invited to consider big questions such as: What do we really mean by “art”? What roles has art played in pre-modern societies? How can study of ancient and medieval art contribute valuable perspectives on modern art and culture? Or, more specifically, why was the Old Capitol in Iowa City designed to look somewhat like a Greek temple? By the end of the course, students will have gained familiarity with the broad outlines of western artistic tradition through the late Middle Ages, and they will also have developed valuable skills in decoding and writing about visual imagery, which can be useful in analyzing everything from political advertisements to website design.

Historical Perspectives Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Art from India, China, and Japan in many media and forms, in their cultural and historical contexts; cultural distinctions of these Asian civilizations as seen through the visual arts; chronology used to highlight historical processes and provide perspectives on continuity and change. Taught in English.

Organized around a series of case studies of exemplary objects, the course explores the wide range of Asian art across different times, regions, cultures, materials, and themes. Special attention will be placed on interactions and influences between different regions through religion, war, travel, and trade. Each class will start with a formal analysis exercise on the key object, followed by a lecture that contextualizes the object, and then online discussion based on required readings

Historical Perspectives Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Survey of the visual arts of Indigenous peoples in North America with emphasis on regions that have become the United States; exploration of painting, sculpture, ceramics, fiber arts, performance, and architecture as expressions of identity, creativity, resistance, and resilience from ancestral traditions through transformations prompted by non-Native contact to today's vibrant art scene.

Native American Art is a survey of the visual arts of indigenous peoples in North America, with emphasis on those in the regions that have become the United States. Considering many different types of objects in an array of contexts, from the techniques used to produce them, their use, the ideologies and cosmologies they represent, and the evolving circumstances of their creators, this course will help students understand the remarkable characteristics, variety, and importance of Native imagery as vivid expressions of identity, creativity, resistance, and resilience over centuries, even as Native cultures have undergone extraordinary hardships and devastating change over the past several hundred years. Focusing especially on architecture, ceramics, sculpture, textiles and clothing, painting, and performance from the PreContact period to the present, we will explore rich artistic traditions and their legacies as well as transformations that have resulted from involvement with non-Native cultures.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts Values and Culture Values, Society, and Diversity

Drawing, composition; selected reading.

A beginning-level course for nonmajors, this course is designed to encourage students who have had little or no formal studio experience. Drawing is the principal means for considering a range of expressive opportunities. Using wet (e.g., ink) and dry (e.g., charcoal) mediums, students work from the human figure (clothed and unclothed), still life, and landscape. Students are given instruction in the skills of representation and principles of abstraction as an introduction to form, creativity, and greater discrimination of the visual world.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Fundamental 3D design principles and appreciation of contemporary jewelry and metal artworks; techniques and materials in jewelry and metal arts; experimentation with diverse media.

For non-art majors. It covers fundamental 3-D design principles and appreciation of contemporary jewelry and metal art works. Students will learn fundamental techniques and materials in jewelry and metal arts, as well as experimentation with diverse media.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

This course provides an overview of relief and monotype printmaking. We will learn basic techniques, the operation and use of tools and materials to craft multiple and reproducible works of art. We will also discuss the history of printmaking by looking at works by professional printmakers, both historical and contemporary, for inspiration. Through the process of printmaking, we will also learn to combine the elements of design and principles of art to create successful and thoughtful compositions. There are usually 4-5 projects completed over the course of the semester and most of the work happens in a communal print studio setting.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Basic handbuilding methods of forming, firing, glazing clay.

This course serves as an introduction to the ceramic arts and focuses on hand-building techniques and surface decoration. Students will learn to create original work through five assignments. Students load and fire electric and gas kilns, with occasional wood, soda, and raku firing as time and scheduling permit. Students mix glazes and make clay throughout the semester. There are lectures on artists relevant to the field of ceramics, basic glaze and clay formulation and preparation, along with lectures on technical information and contemporary ceramics discourse. Short papers may be assigned for research. Several critiques concerning class assignments will be conducted throughout the semester.

Engineering Be Creative Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Introduction to popular culture from the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese diaspora; shifting relationships among cultural production, media and technology, and political thought; influences of Japan, Korea, and the West; materials drawn from film, television shows, music, new media, popular literature, comics, magazines, advertising, fashion, art, and material culture; no previous knowledge of Chinese is required.

This course explores various currents, themes and functions of Chinese popular culture through history, with an emphasis on traditional foundations, modern transformations and global influences. Students will be introduced to theories and research on the study of popular culture in general and within the specific context of China. Topics include: different conceptions of folk, mass and popular cultural forms and genres in different periods of Chinese history; traditional life-ways, myths and lore and their lasting influence; the passage from orality and performance to writing and mass media; the advent of urban print culture and popular literature; the modern discovery of folklore to express the nation in China; the invention of revolutionary popular culture; the impact of mass and new media forms of cinema, radio, television and internet; local and global influences in music, fashion and youth culture; social, economic and political dynamics of production, consumption and regulation of popular culture.

NO PREREQUISITE. No prior knowledge of Chinese language is required.

This course has been approved for the GE area of Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts; and for students admitted before Summer 2011 in Foreign Civilization and Culture.

 

 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Film history, theory, criticism; issues of form, technologies, and cultural functions of cinema; screenings of narrative, documentary, experimental films from varied periods and nations.

THIS COURSE DOES NOT COUNT TOWARD THE SCREENWRITING ARTS MAJOR OR THE CINEMA MAJOR OR MINOR. If you have questions about this, please contact your Cinematic Arts undergraduate advisor.

This course (General Education - Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts) introduces students to the study of film across a range of aesthetic, historical, technological, formal, and industrial contexts. Students will acquire the vocabulary and analytical skills necessary to examine individual films and discuss them according to key historical/cultural settings and theoretical debates. Particular emphasis will be placed upon terminology needed for understanding Hollywood narrative cinema and its alternatives. This course incorporates both fiction and non-fiction cinematic forms from the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Current cinema; key genres, movements, filmmakers, technological changes; recent cultural contexts, industrial and economic factors, changes in the film viewing experience.

This course (General Education - Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts) provides an introductory overview of global cinema since the late 1960s. We’ll explore the sociocultural and technological changes that have impacted various film cultures around the world, as well as the ways in which mainstream, independent, and international cinemas have intersected with issues of race, gender, sexuality, national history, globalization, and new media technologies.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Reading and analysis of major literary texts from writing's origins to 1700 in the Mediterranean, Asia, and Africa; interrelationship of literature and history. Taught in English.

We may not all believe that it’s better to have love and lost than never to have loved at all, but the experience of love is hard to imagine without the experience of loss. This course will look at the human experience of love, loss, and longing across a wide variety of traditions and time periods. The idea will be to glance into a number of literatures without having to identify a single thread or story among them other than our own responses and reflections. This will be an exercise in reading for better living, in learning a bit about how others have thought about love and loss in order to expand our own ways of seeing the world. There won’t be any books to purchase. The readings will be available online. We will work on paying close attention to short texts through simple readings. Our aim will always be to engage the imagination. There will be a series of shorter written assignments, an oral presentation, and a final written project. Some of the readings will be drawn from the likes of Homer, Sappho (the only ancient Greek female poet we know by name), Plato, the anonymous authors of the Thousand and One Arabian Nights, the (also anonymous) early Spanish-language texts known as jarchas, the Roman poets Virgil, Ovid, and Catullus, the Medieval troubadour poets of southern France, Baroque Spanish and Italian verse, and the writings of the great seventeenth-century Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. We’ll think a bit about different kinds of love, what it means to feel so strongly the presence of something that no longer exists or that is far away, about the nature of life, death, joy, sorrow, that sort of thing. Along the way we’ll also pause to consider what it means to read things in translation, what it means to read a text of something which was originally meant for oral performance, and how it is that some things have survived the ages and come down to us as important.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Study of words, their meanings, and their origins combined with writing; words and word histories; role of English language in the world.

This course examines writing strategies (word choice, in particular) within the context of literary analysis. We will study the origins of English words and especially the Latin components that make up the majority of English words—sixty percent of all words and ninety percent of those over two syllables. We also will look closely at three tales from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, tracing adaptations of Midas, Pyramus and Thisbe, and Pygmalion from antiquity to the present day in poetry, drama, art, and film.

Class will be a combination of lecture, discussion, video clips, writing exercises, and word games. Some of the writing assignments will be creative, some will be more traditional, but all will be related to what we have just read or viewed. In order to focus on writing at the word and sentence level, the emphasis will be on shorter writing efforts as opposed to long papers. Grades will be based on writing assignments, quizzes, and three exams.

Translations of Ovid, Stanley Lombardo’s in particular, will serve as a point of departure. Other readings/viewings will include the works of canonical authors such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Shaw, as well as those of present-day poets, playwrights, and filmmakers. We also will examine how the English language has changed over time and how an author’s background (era, culture, race, gender, etc.) may have influenced different adaptations of the same story.

Satisfies one of the requirements for the Undergraduate Certificate in Writing.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Introduction to ancient Greek and Roman myths with focus on using these sources as interpretations of culture and human psyche; emphasis on flexibility of myth and its importance for understanding ancient history, art, literature, religion, and philosophy.

Hercules, Odysseus, Achilles and Oedipus all share one major characteristic: they are all heroes whose adventures and stories are chronicled in timeless Greek and Roman sacred stories, or myths. This course looks at these heroes (and more!), in addition to the gods and goddesses whom these peoples believed ruled their world. The study of Greco-Roman mythology offers an excellent window into the past by providing us with a unique opportunity to examine how the Greeks and Romans attempted to answer questions about the nature of the universe and mankind’s place in it.  The myths of any people betray attitudes concerning life, death, life after death, love, hate, morality, the role of women in society, etc.; we will pay particular attention to how Greco-Roman mythology addresses these important issues.
This course is designed to offer a general introduction to the myths of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Because ancient myths have come down to us in various works of literary and physical art, this course will also introduce you to some of the most influential works produced in ancient Greece and Rome. Moreover, because the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome have exercised such an influence in the shaping of the modern western world, we will equip ourselves with the background necessary to make modern literature, philosophy, religion, and art intelligible and meaningful. By examining and scrutinizing the myths of the ancient Greeks and Romans, we will learn not only a great deal about their cultures, but we will also put ourselves in a position from which to question, criticize, and (hopefully) better understand the foundations of the world in which we find ourselves.
This course meets the Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts general education requirement, as well as the Values and Culture requirement, through its use of ancient works of art (literary and visual) and focus on the ways in which ancient Greek and Romans managed the human experience.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts Values and Culture Values, Society, and Diversity

Exploration of creative nonfiction genres through readings, discussion, and writing exercises; introduction to workshop environment.

A course exploring genres of creative nonfiction through readings, discussions, writing exercises, and writing itself. Students experience a workshop environment in which class members read, discuss, respond to, and critique the drafts their fellow students produce. Course readings, assignments, and exercises model the many modes of nonfiction for student writers. For beginning non-English majors.

Engineering Be Creative Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Experience reading and writing fiction, poetry, and personal narrative in a workshop setting; study of published work and critical discussion from a writer's standpoint; critique of class members' work. Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Basic movement fundamentals, terminology, performance skills of jazz dance; enhancement of flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality; warm-up, locomotion, center combinations; may include history of jazz dance.

This course introduces the basic movement fundamentals, terminology, and performance skills of jazz dance.  It is intended to enhance beginning student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through jazz technique.  Class is structured around a warm-up leading to locomotion across the floor and center combinations.  Content may also include the history of jazz dance.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques.  

 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Foundations of hip hop dance and street dance culture; movement participation is central to learning; activities may include viewing videos and written assignments; students are challenged and encouraged to understand and apply foundational and historical knowledge of hip hop. Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Basic movement fundamentals, terminology, performance skills of ballet; enhancement of flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality; barre and center combinations; terminology; may include history of ballet.

This course introduces the basic movement fundamentals, terminology, and performance skills of ballet.  It is intended to enhance the beginning student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through ballet technique.  Activities will include barre and center combinations.  Terminology will be stressed during class, detailed in handouts, and included in exams.  Content may include the history of ballet.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques. 

 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Basic movement fundamentals, terminology, performance skills of modern dance; enhancement of flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality; warm-up, locomotion, center combinations; may include history of modern dance.

This course introduces the basic movement fundamentals, terminology, and performance skills of modern dance.  It is intended to enhance the beginning student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through modern dance technique.  Activities will include warm-up, locomotion and center combinations.  Content may include the history of modern dance.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques.  Assignments are given according to the instructor’s discretion.  

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Continuation of DANC:1020; skills for technique and performance of jazz dance; enhancement of flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality; warm-up, locomotion, center combinations; may include history of jazz dance.

This course builds on the foundation of skills necessary for the technique and performance of jazz dance.  It is intended to enhance the continuing student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through jazz technique.  Class is structured around a warm-up leading to locomotion across the floor and center combinations.  Content may include the history of jazz dance.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques.  Assignments are given according to the instructor’s discretion.  

 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Continuation of DANC:1030; skills necessary for technique and performance of ballet; enhancement of flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality; barre and center combinations; terminology; may include history of ballet.

This course is a continuation of DANC:1030, building a foundation of skills necessary for the technique and performance of ballet.  It is intended to enhance the continuing student’s flexibility, strength, body alignment, coordination, balance, kinesthetic awareness, personal range of motion, and musicality through ballet technique.  Class is structured around barre and center combinations.  Terminology will be stressed during class, detailed in handouts, and included in exams.  Content may include the history of ballet.  Students are graded on the basis of participation, attendance, movement exams, written exams and/or quizzes, and performance critiques.  Assignments are given according to the instructor’s discretion.  

 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

This course explores the role of the performing arts in the human experience, and examines the nature of the creative impulse in different performance media, cultures, societies and historical contexts.  Much of the class work is based on attendance at live performances of theatre, music, and dance on campus and in the community.  Readings, films and videos will augment live performances. Emphasis is on analyzing performance and the experience of the audience through writing and in-depth class discussions. 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts Values and Culture Values, Society, and Diversity

Low-intermediate technique and performance training in jazz dance; flexibility, strength, body alignment, and coordination as foundation for more advanced dance artistry including mobility, musicality, style; warm-up, locomotion, center combinations; may include history of jazz dance.

Intermediate technique and performance training in jazz dance, including hip-hop; flexibility, strength, body alignment, and coordination as foundation for more advanced dance artistry, including mobility, musicality, style; warm-up, locomotion, center combinations; may include history of jazz and hip-hop dance.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Continuation of DANC:1125; focus on strengthening and adding to foundations and origins of hip hop and street dance culture; the journey to today's current definitions of hip hop and street dance with introduction to freestyling and groove theory; movement participation is central to learning and activities include viewing videos and written assignments; students are challenged and encouraged to understand and apply historical and practical knowledge of hip hop at an intermediate level. Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Concentrated intermediate-level technical and performance training in contemporary movement practices; topics include flexibility, strength, body alignment, and breath as a foundation for more advanced dance artistry including musicality, mobility, balance, and improvisation; variations in timing; changes of facing.

Intermediate technique and performance training in modern dance.  Flexibility, strength, body alignment and breath lay a foundation for the introduction of more advanced aspects of dance artistry including musicality, mobility, balance, and improvisation.  Variations in timing and changes of facing are also explored.  Students are graded on the basis of classroom work (including expressiveness, growth, consistency, retention of corrections, focus, musicality, attendance, and attitude), performance critiques, movement and/or written exams.      

 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

How the Beatles' music was influenced by American pop music, the drug culture, and the avant-garde, nonwestern instruments and philosophy, anti-war sentiments, world politics, and so forth; Beatlemania's impact on British and American cultures and its role in opening Eastern Europe to the West.

The Beatles are arguably the most influential popular music artists in history.  In many ways, their careers reflected and shaped the culture of their time.  In this course students will explore the impact influences such as rock ‘n’ roll, gigs in Hamburg, world tours, the drug culture, the Avant Garde, non-western instruments and philosophy, anti-war sentiments, and world politics had on the Beatles’ music. We will examine the development, maturation, and demise of the Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership as well as the role George Martin and his engineers played in turning the Beatles’ sonic explorations into hit singles and groundbreaking records. Concurrently students will critique the impact Beatlemania had on British and American cultures as well as its role in opening up Eastern Europe to the West.  Innovations made in the recording and marketing of albums and films, and the difficulties the group encountered in managing royalties, copyrights, and various business ventures are covered.  Students will view several of the Beatles’ various television appearances and films and develop an in-depth understanding of their music.  Students will gain knowledge of British and American cultural history through the “window” the Beatles and their music provide. 

 

This course is open to all students; including non-music majors.  

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Theories related to human development and visual arts; use of visual arts to make meaning from experience; ways to integrate visual arts into everyday life; cognitive and physical processes involved in making, understanding, and looking at visual art through studio experiences; theories of cognitive development; role of visual art in education; introduction to art production, history, criticism, and aesthetics.

Theories related to human development and visual arts; use of visual arts to make meaning out of experience; ways to integrate visual arts into everyday life; cognitive and physical processes involved in making, understanding, and looking at visual art; theories of cognitive development; role of visual art in education; introduction to art production, art history, art criticism, and aesthetics.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Contemporary Scandinavian crime novel in its literary, historical, geographic, cultural, and social context. Taught in English.

Scandinavian crime fiction has attracted global attention, and the works of many contemporary Scandinavian mystery novelists have been translated into English. Scandinavian mysteries range from police procedurals to psychological thrillers and typically provide a window into the culture, environment, and geography of their settings and offer an underlying commentary on political, social, and economic issues. The exploration of Scandinavian mystery novels and film adaptations will introduce students to the genre of crime fiction, provide them with an overview of mystery writing in Scandinavia, and introduce them to the work of contemporary authors. It also serves as a medium for acquiring knowledge about the geography, culture, and society of the countries of Scandinavia. Taught in English.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Since early modern times, the pact with the devil has served as a metaphor for humankind's desire to surpass the limits of knowledge and power; students explore a variety of works from German, British, and Russian literature and culture from early modern time to the present, and critique different twists that fascination with the forbidden takes in regard to women. Taught in English.

Is worldly success possible without a pact with the devil? Can you achieve greatness without selling your core values? Your soul? And what was the original Faustian bargain? We will follow the development of various devilish pacts through the characters of Job (The Book of Job), Satan, Adam and Eve (Milton's Paradise Lost) and Doctor Faustus and Mephistopheles (Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Goethe's Faust). We will also examine the fate of the characters who confront the Grand Inquisitors and assorted devils of 20th century totalitarian states (The Third Reich in Mann's Mephisto and the Soviet Union in Bulgakov's Master and Margarita). In the second half of the semester students will have the opportunity to explore devilish pacts in their own culture, major, or other interest, from Milton to Bulgakov, visual and performing arts to film, music, and gaming by doing a presentation and research paper.

3 s.h. German/Russian; GE Literary, Visual, Performing Arts; German/Russian major/minor elective; Honors credit option. Taught in English.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Folk and popular musical traditions and their social contexts in Latin America, the Caribbean; listening skills; video/film screenings.

This course surveys selected folk and popular musical traditions within their historical and social contexts in Latin America and the Caribbean. Students examine the three principal musical sources of indigenous America, Europe and Africa, and the ensuing stylistic mixtures and combinations through select music cultures from the region, including the indigenous music of the Andean highlands, musics of the Afro-Hispanic Caribbean (Cuba and Puerto Rico), Trinidadian calypsos and steel pan, and samba and bossa nova in Brazil. The course is designed to broaden students' exposure to other musical systems and explore the interrelationship of music and its social meaning.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts Values and Culture Values, Society, and Diversity

Reading, technical study, chording, playing by ear, improvisation; for beginners. This course is open to non-music majors only. The course is designed for the beginner; no previous background in piano is necessary. The course includes reading, technical study, chording, playing by ear, and improvisation. Grading is based on performance assignments and reviews, theory exams, regular class participation, and outside preparation. Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

How to listen to jazz and recognize a variety of processes that are taking place in performances and recordings; historical, social, and political issues, including race and gender; the unique blend of jazz of a particular region; attendance at live performances, meet and interview musicians, critics, and educators.

Since World War II, jazz has spread to every corner of the globe producing unique interpretations and practices as it interacts with local traditions. Similarly, jazz musicians in America have found musical sources for their compositions outside of the traditional jazz mainstream. This course will investigate a number of ways that jazz music is interpreted with particular attention to the contexts in which music is created, transmitted and received. Each year the class compares the American jazz tradition to a unique international region that has a strong jazz scene. 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts Values and Culture Values, Society, and Diversity

Bassoon, cello, clarinet, euphonium, flute, horn, oboe, organ, percussion, piano, saxophone, string bass, trombone, trumpet, tuba, viola, violin, or voice.

The course is for non-music majors only and consists of one half-hour weekly lesson plus a weekly seminar. 

While exact requirements vary by discipline (e.g. piano, voice, cello) students should expect to rehearse a minimum of three hours a week.

For permission to register please email the Course Supervisor listed for the specific instrument of interest. Registration is under separate section numbers for bassoon, cello, clarinet, composition, euphonium, flute, horn, oboe, organ, percussion, piano, saxophone, string bass, trombone, trumpet, tuba, viola, violin and voice. 

Unless noted it is the responsibility of the student to arrange lesson times with the instructor before the end of the first week of classes. 

Students enrolling for Voice will be contacted by the Instructor to arrange the private lesson time no later than the first week of classes. 

 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Lives and works of important composers, performers.

What makes music great? What makes a great musician? The concept of “great musician” and the consequent notion of “good music” is central to how we experience and talk about music and musical performance. This course aims to both survey a wide variety of “great musicians”—from Bach to Fatboy Slim—and encourage critical assessment of how we determine “greatness” in musical expression. Selected musicians will be studied within the framework of four themes: Music and Religious Life, Music and Theater, Music and Politics, and Music and Place. 

Course requirements include one 5-minute presentation, three short writing assignments, listening quizzes, and two exams.

 

 

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Major 20th-century styles, artists, seminal works, and recordings; developments between 1917 and 1972.

This course is a survey of Major 20th-century styles, artists, seminal works, and recordings; developments between 1900 and today. Course materials include a written text, ICON listening list, films and live performances. Requirements include online quizzes, two exams and writing assignments.

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts Values and Culture Values, Society, and Diversity

This course examines the history of Western music from the Middle Ages through the mid-18th century. Classes are a combination of lecture, discussion, listening, and score-reading. Historical Perspectives Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Basic sculptural concepts, processes, investigation of materials such as plaster, clay, wood; emphasis on developing formal language, acquiring basic skills; spatial, conceptual, technical issues.

This course is an introduction to basic sculptural concepts and processes. Emphasis is placed on developing personal ideas, and acquiring basic skills and knowledge of materials. Each assignment builds upon the others, creating a solid conceptual/technical foundation. Instruction includes readings, discussions, demonstrations, and slide presentations. Attendance is mandatory and grades are based on personal development and class participation. This is a fundamental 3D art course that introduces students to a wide array of hands-on fabrication techniques including, wood assemblage, plaster/wax mold-making and fabricating with wire/metal.

Engineering Be Creative Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Concentration, relaxation, imagination, observation, communication, sensory awareness; development of theatrical creativity through objectives, obstacles, action, conflict, spontaneity; development of a scene from scripts.

This course is intended for students who are not theatre arts majors. The course is an introduction to the elements of performance, including exercises in concentration, imagination, observation, communication, relaxation, and sensory awareness. Classes are designed to promote toning the voice and body, freeing creative expression, and developing an understanding of the dramatic situation. This is primarily a lab class; appropriate casual clothing is necessary. Play attendance with written critiques, a journal, and a final performance project with written character and scene analyses are required. The course enhances interpersonal communication and presentation skills required for a successful career in occupations such as Engineering, Business, Medicine, Marketing, Mass Communications and Education to name a few.

Engineering Be Creative Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Representative plays as performed in social contexts of revolutionary and modern Europe and postwar United States. Duplicates THTR:2411.

Focusing on the romantic and rebellious impulses of theatre artists and audiences, this course explores how plays in performance have both revolutionized and reinforced social structures, perceptions, and values from the early modern era to the present. Course units cover plays dealing with rebellions of and within the middle and lower classes from the French to the Russian Revolutions; modernist revolts against artistic and social conventions in the decades around the world wars; and diverse challenges to the American dream in the postwar period. Course material is covered through lectures, audio/video presentations, group discussions, and attendance at University Theatre productions. Grading is based chiefly on the quality of essay assignments and exams, and participation in class discussion.

Historical Perspectives Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Elements of playwriting; emphasis on analysis and discussion of original student writing.

This course provides an introduction to the craft of playwriting.  Students will focus on the fundamentals of writing for the stage, including playwriting structure, creating characters, writing dialogue and building plays.  Coursework includes in-class writing, regular writing assignments, and the reading of plays.

Engineering students, as well as students of other disciplines, are encouraged to enroll.

Engineering Be Creative Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts

Continuation of THTR:2410; 1700 to 1960; revolutionary and modern European theatre and culturally diverse postwar U.S. theatre. Offered fall semesters.

Focusing on the romantic and rebellious impulses of theatre artists and audiences, this course explores how plays in performance have both revolutionized and reinforced social structures, perceptions, and values from the early modern era to the present. Course units cover plays dealing with rebellions of and within the middle and lower classes from the French to the Russian Revolutions; modernist revolts against artistic and social conventions in the decades around the world wars; and diverse challenges to the American dream in the postwar period. Course material is covered through lectures, audio/video presentations, attendance at University Theatre productions, and group discussions. Assignments involve weekly play and text readings, a research paper, and periodic essay exams, including a final exam. Grading is based chiefly on participation in discussion and quality of written work. Historical Perspectives Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts